Girl power | Ditching CVs sees number of women in top roles surge

Women are more likely to be hired for senior positions than men when a skills-based approach rather than a CV-driven approach is taken during the hiring process, new research has found.

Currently, women account for just 31% of senior management positions. The research by de-biased recruitment consultants Applied found this increased to 52% – an increase of almost 70% – once a skills-based hiring approach was used.

Researchers tracked the gender split of 2,260 candidates who were hired into senior roles in 102 international companies between 2017 and 2021. The candidates were all hired using Applied’s de-biased process, a randomised method that anonymises candidates and asks them to answer specific skills-based questions, rather than sending in a traditional CV (on which the candidate’s gender is likely to be immediately obvious).

The second stage of Applied’s hiring process involves cognitive ability tests and structured interviews.